Watching the wristwatch on Delia's hand twist to a quarter of the dial, Lin Fan knew the assault on this Titan Graveyard had begun.
First came the firelight from one end of the horizon, followed by several dense strings of continuous artillery fire, too rapid for human ears to distinguish.
It felt like setting off ten bundles of firecrackers at once. The crackling of popping beans was drowned beneath even more numerous, denser crackles, and any attempt to identify where a sound came from became pure fantasy.
The Ork positions were awakened by the Imperium's artillery. Within this faintly glowing graveyard, Lin Fan could see the enormous junkyard awakening.
The fierce Ork grin atop the massive Waaagh! banner tower, linked by hydraulic pumps and cranes, opened and shut while spewing flames from its mouth, producing a harsh scraping clatter.
The Orks had given their ramshackle armored vehicles different decorations and paint jobs, representing their owners' personalities and traits.
Even the skies above the entire city had awakened. Lin Fan could see the thick, continuous fire of Ork anti-aircraft guns pouring into the heavy polluted clouds overhead. The arcs traced through the air by those flashing, deadly metal storms were breathtakingly beautiful.
Like meteors from the heavens being returned to the universe.
But Lin Fan had little time to admire that unusual beauty. He was waiting inside an earth-boring drill vehicle with the assault squad, observing the Space Marines' movements through a servo-skull linked to the drill.
The operation itself was simple enough when laid out.
Imperium forces would draw the Orks' attention and fight across the magnificent plains churned up by plasma annihilation cannons. The Space Marines would descend from the sky, clear out the Orks' high-threat fortress guns and positions, and incidentally search for the boss commanding this area.